May 21, 2006

The Messiah Thing

In London, Chávez told assorted PSFs that he intended the Bolivarian Revolution to "save the world." Yesterday, on his return, he said "the world has more and more hope in the Bolivarian Revolution." Little by little, the rhetorical field of endeavour for chavismo has shifted up a notch, from merely Latin America to the world as a whole.

Now, for years it's been clear that the guy had a bit of Messianic complex, but I'd never thought to take that literally. Alas, that's what we're dealing with now - the salvation of humanity is what he thinks this is all about.

The sheer hubris in this kind of declaration is pretty stunning...as is the utter collapse in common sense it takes to fail to see it. Y'know, if alarm bells aren't going off in your head when the guy in front of you tells you he intends to save the world, you've got some growing up to do (I'm looking straight at ya, Ken...)

I mean, there's overreaching, and then there's overreaching. I think we're pretty obviously in overreaching territory here.